Wal Mart rant *warning* long

This is a discussion on Wal Mart rant *warning* long within the General Firearm Discussion forums, part of the Related Topics category; I've never had one bad experience at Walmart, period. Whether I was buying ammo or anything else.
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I've often wondered how many times Sam Walton has flipped over in his grave. As soon as he died Walmart started spiraling down hill. I remember when it was company policy that if there were more than 3 people in line, another register would be opened. Now I think if there are less than 10 in line, they close registers.

Amen, brother!!!

I got so mad late one night, with a buggy full of groceries, about 10 people in line and 40 cash registers sitting idle. From where I was standing, I could see a manager and 3 other "associates" shooting the bull. I finally was able to wave the manage over and I said, "You know, Walmart could have saved thousands of dollars and only put 1 cash register in each store instead of 40 because that's apparently all that work. Are these other ones just cardboard dummies? Why don't you and the 3 stooges over there quit telling jokes and operate some of these cash taking machines instead of making people stand here and wait to give you their money?"

He started rambling some BS excuse why they couldn't and I said, "OK, I tell you what. Stand here with your hands on the buggy. Now, how much is it going to cost you to have your three compadres over there put all of this stuff back where it is supposed to go? I'm not standing here anymore waiting to give you my money. I'm going somewhere that will make it easy for me to give it to them." And with that, I walzed out of there and left him standing in line with a buggy running over with stuff. Went to a local grocery store on the way home and was in and out in no time.

If I can't find anybody in the vicinity of the gun counter, I'll pick up the phone on the gun counter. In the old days you could use the intercom to page someone. Now that they use walkie-talkies, I don't know that you can still do that. Thus, I press '0' and talk to the store operator. As soon as they realize that you're a customer calling from inside the store, they usually get somebody there pretty quickly. I'll have to remember the "rattle the glass" technique.

Trouble with all this clever "searching for the guy with key ring," "rattling the glass," "waving management over," and "picking up the phone" is that all the extra effort is an unnecessary nuisance. It's bad when retailing has sunk to the point where one has to do something out of the ordinary to even be noticed.

For the most part, I've had good experiences buying ammo at Walmart. The last time I was there I bought a hundred round box of Winchester White Box 45 acp and another hundred round box of Remington 45 hollow points. The young guy who opened the case said "Whoa, getting ready for hunting season, huh?" Ahh.....yuupp

my own walmart story..

A few years back I was down on the Texas coast preparing to go duck hunting. As usual, I went down to the local walmart and proceeded to grab a few boxes of winchester 12 gauge steel shot shells. At the register, I handed over my ID (I was 19 at the time) and my credit card to pay. The cashier calls over her manager who proceeds to ask my younger brother, who was with me, (17 at the time) for his ID. Upon finding out his age she outright refused to sell me the ammunition. A police officer standing nearby over heard all of this and stepped in and attempted to correct the manager, saying that, because I was over 18, and I was paying, Walmart must sell me the shotgun ammunition. She still refused.

Furios, I called over my much older uncle over who was also buying ammunition at another register and tried to have him attempt to purchase my ammunition. Guess what? The manager then refused to sell him any ammunition!

The police officer pulled the manager aside and had some words with her about how her decision to deny ammunition sales to properly qualified individuals was in fact illegal, but she wouldn't even listen. Finally we all (police officer included) stormed out of the store all swearing to never buy ammunition from Walmart again. The officer told us he would report this injustice to his chief so that future citizens were not put through this same trouble.

I do not have too much trouble at Wal-mart but I do remember one time. It was a Saturday and I wanted to go to the range to do some shooting. The guy at Wal mart said the person with the keys on Friday misplaced them and went home for the weekend. they would have to wait for Monday when he came back to find out what he did with them.I told them if that was my employee they would be getting an angry phone call and be told to get back here now! I could not believe that they would let sales go by all weekend instead of getting a key some how, but that is what they did.

I stopped having any expectations from Walmart when I started seeing employees that appeared to be part of a prison detail. (I just pretend that when some of them were hired, XXXL tall uniform shirts were all they had available. :D )

Fortunately when it comes to ammo, somebody is normally standing within 10 feet of the cases. It could be to keep shady employees from coming around it, or it could be their policy, but either way I normally have good experiences in that department.

No suprise here. Seems like poor service is standard operating procedure at Walmart.

What do you expect with overworked minimum wage employees?

I heard today on the radio that the average wage at Wal-Mart is $12.99/hour. That's well above minimum wage... regardless, people are getting paid to work, not to goof off. I find that people are always on lunch at Wal-Mart, too. What a hole.

Well first off, I work for walmart, I have worked there for the past 9 yrs. When sam walton died and his wife died, the walton family no longer controled walmart.
The board and CEO Lee Scott, turned everything over to (what I call) bean counters. they use computers to make workers scheduals. the post associates in traffic areas.
according to traffic, in the stores. As far as selling to a minor, if they are proven to be underage, then having someone else make the purchase for them Is A 3rd party sale and IT IS against walmart policy. their law not mine. (It is due to mostly tobacco and booze) they have been sue'd many times for this and they don't tollerate it anymore.
As far as service in sporting goods, There is only 2 keys availabe per shift. and with the fire arms and ammo my store watches very close. But with the cuts in associates, we can be spread very thin
at times.
I work in the back, and don't get out on the floor much, but I do feel your pain, I go though the same as you guy's and gal's
And I will not defend the actions of walmart, but there is something ALL of you can do is to call your store and ask for a manager, and tell them you are waiting at the sporting goods counter, and that you are needing service. then listen for the B.S. then say I am calling the home office when you hang up. and I mean call the home office and report them. And get their names also.
You will be helping yourself you will be helping the associates also.
Walmart no longer has full time positions at walmart because they claim they can keep prices down, which is still B.S.
I am serious call the home office, every single time.
Put some pressure on the higher ups, they have too much power, and need to be brought back down to earth.
david

You need to stop and think, that $12.99 per hr. isn't cash it's with the insurance benifit. I have been with walmart 9 yrs. and still don't get $12.99 per hr. before my stroke I made over $50,000 a yr.
so we're not going to that fight.
david